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First of many?

Say goodbye to the Bramble Cay melomys. This rodent, which lived only on a Great Barrier Reef island, is thought to be the first mammal to be made extinct primarily by human-made climate change. The species hasn’t been seen since 2009, probably wiped out by sea-level rises.

Three’s not a crowd

A controversial “three-parent” gene fertility therapy could be used in humans within two years, after new trial results show it can produce healthy embryos free from disease. The technique aims to prevent fatal mitochondrial disease being passed from parent to child by placing the nucleus from a fertilised egg into a healthy donor egg (Nature, doi.org/bjz3).

Double sun giant

Sometimes two suns are better than one. Astronomers have discovered the largest-ever planet to orbit a binary star. Known as Kepler-1647b, it is a gas giant slightly bigger than Jupiter and sits in the habitable zone of its star, meaning any rocky moons in orbit could have liquid water on their surface.

Organ boost

The US White House has announced new initiatives to help improve organ transplants, including a $160 million investment by the US Department of Defense, a data-sharing agreement between transplant centres, and funding for researchers working on groundbreaking regenerative therapies.

Not such a bird brain

Who’s a clever birdy? Some birds behave far more intelligently than we would expect from their tiny brains. Now we know why – by densely cramming as many neurons into their brains as some primates (PNAS, doi.org/bjzx). The macaw, for example, has more neurons in its forebrain than a macaque, despite its brain being walnut-sized.